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As you already know this last week was a wee bit stressful, as in terrifying

Thankfully the medications are working well and dh’s pain is down to a manageable dull ache. He used two vacation days this week for going to the doctor on Monday, and then when he was hurting too much to even get dressed in business attire on Thursday.
As there always is with such situations we had added expenses above the normal tight budget. In “the good old days” We would have handed over a credit card for the co-pay at the doctor’s office and pharmacy. Instead I paid cash out (bad credit payday loans guaranteed approval) of the grocery money for it. Choosing to save our medical sinking fund cash for when the rest of the bills arrive.
On Friday my computer completely locked up and wouldn’t revive until dh worked on it for a very long time. I’ll post what was wrong with it in another post—it has to do with a program many of us have on our machines and may not even know it.
The repair lasted through Saturday and once he figured out what was actually wrong with it we discussed the fact that all my home row keys no longer have the letters and symbols on them, because I’ve worn them off. Not a problem for me because I am a touch typist. However, it does affect Mr. Hunt and peck when he is working on my computer.
Then there is the fact that my battery on the computer will no longer hold a charge at all. Again not a problem to me. I just plug it in.
Add to it the fact the h and o only work when they are in the mood to (try typing this line without an h or o.) That is a minor inconvenience. Add all that together and dh said he thought it was time we started a sinking fund to replace my laptop. In “the good old days” we would have taken the bonus coupon we got that day in the mail from reward zone and used it per its terms and conditions with the BB cc to purchase both of us a new laptop (his died over a year ago and he’s been using my old one—until it suffered permanent death, then ds’ old one they have rebuilt twice and now ds’ hand me down—slowly dying tablet.) Doing so on a same as cash “deal.” Of course we would have gone and done other shopping and of course eaten out
When I am stressed I want to eat out, that is one of my coping mechanisms. Some people shop, some people stress eat. Me I pay to eat. LOL. In “the good old days” we would have eaten out for lunch and dinner on Monday at a sit down restaurant and put it on a charge card. Instead we ate lunch at home and ds, who knows me so well, fed us a cheap fast food meal with cash for dinner. We didn’t even consider a meal out the rest of the week.
Instead we discussed the blog I had written (link below) on how dangerous same as cash deals and charge cards are. Then on Sunday dh started adding programs to the Frankenstein desktop he and ds built for office use only. I’ll start doing all my blog posts from there until after we are free of our consumer debt. (counting the days down). Then we will start a sinking fund for computer replacement. Creating “good new days,.”
We are continuing to eat out of food storage (4 weeks now) instead of grocery shopping or eating out. In fact today I’m trying a new to us recipe that we saw on “Pioneer Woman” this weekend. –in my last cottage cheese purchase is still good. Only where she used all fresh ingredients I’ll be using home canned (or freeze dried) ground beef mixed with a little tvp, dehydrated sour cream, dehydrated tomatoes, dried homemade egg noodles, with the rest of the ingredients from my pitiful garden. We’ll see how it goes.
One of the mystery shopping companies I work for has gone over to paying their shoppers with a pre-paid credit card. I am NOT amused. The pages of legal gibberish are numerous. I will be working less and less for them, actually probably not at all, as a result. Basically the only way you can get your money is to use the card for exactly the amount on it at certain locations, because if you leave your money on it for too long, there is a fee. If you spend it and you accidentally even attempt to use it to pay for partial payment on say groceries and the system tries to run it through for the full amount it will do it for the full amount and then charge you a fee for being over line and on and on.
I had to agree to be paid this way to get the money for the most recent shop I did. No agreement. No payment. So I agreed to accept the card and now will probably not work for them again—off course there is an account cancellation fee if I don’t do it a certain way too. So my plan is to take the stupid card to Wal-Mart and purchase a gift card for the exact amount on the pre-paid card and use that to buy fuel at a discount. Then simply not shop for that company again. I’ll cancel the pre-paid card the no fee way. I hate that they have gone to this method of payment, it was my favorite company to work for.
Of course I will let the company know why I am quitting. Maybe they will re-think this decision if enough of us protest. I know the one company that insisted I get an ein changed their rules on that when enough of us “quit”. While their page still says you must have one to work for them, those of us who have been working a long time for them don’t have to.
On Friday I did a “new car shop” for $32.
I only got to put $5 extra on BB this last week, but it’s $5 that will save much more than that it the long run considering BB compounds their interest daily. It will “snow” big flakes on this account Friday. One of the many ways we are creating the “good new days”.
We released McNugget, this year’s only gosling, into the main flock this weekend and so far he is staying with elders. Poor little guy, because of the rough start he had he is angel winged on one side (for you non bird folks that means his wing sticks out from his body instead of folding up normally). Otherwise he is healthy. He also thinks he rules the world.
Ds and I got a good laugh out of Jolie, our Aussie Collie mix dog, and McNugget on Saturday. It was “bedtime” and Jolie was doing her job herding the birds to the night pen when McNugget decided he not only wasn’t going, but that he was going to charge and challenge Jolie. The look on the dog’s face was priceless. She looked at the pint sized tyrant and then looked at me as if to say “Did you see that brat? What should I do?”
I told her to take care of it and put him up. So she gave him first her little bark that says “Move it!” to the older birds, which they did. McNugget challenged her again. She did her sharper “NOW” bark, and he challenged her again. The entire flock froze. No one challenges Jolie, she is alpa, and they all know it. She will put her cold nose on their hind quarters and push a bad bird if necessary. The last noise Jo made was a throaty “I said NOW!” growl.
At that point, Mama Serenity, Daddy Frodo and all five older siblings rushed to the naughty gosling and literally drug him by his new feathers toward the night pen. They’ve seen an angry Jolie go after predators and they knew he had tried her patience to the max. I knew the gosling was safe—In the 15 years we’ve had birds Jolie has never hurt a single one. She does take her job seriously though. You will obey her when she says go to bed, or you will be rolled like a soccer ball all the way there. Jolie doesn’t get her dinner until everyone is put up and Jolie likes her dinner.
We heard the elders of the flock scolding the youngster for quite awhile after they were in the pen. Sunday he was a much better behaved little bird. He definitely headed straight for the pen the minute ds said “Bedtime.” To the flock—did I mention geese are smart and train their young?